424 JAMES WATT. 



in short, would be, from sheer inconsiderateness, going 

 back to the age of ignorance, to barbarity, and to misery. 

 It is time to quit this subject, ahhough I am far from 

 having exhausted it. I shall not assuredly have triumphed 

 over a crowd of inveterate and systematic prejudices : but 

 I may hope, at least, that my pleading will obtain the 

 concurrence of those thousands of idlers in the capital, 

 whose life is passed in proportioning a taste for pleasures 

 with their bad health. In a few years, thanks to Watt's 

 discoveries, all these Sybarites, incessantly impelled by 

 steam along railways, can rapidly visit the various regions 

 of the kingdom. They can go the same day to see the 

 fleet get under weigh at Toulon ; breakfast at Marseilles 

 on the succulent roach of the Mediterranean ; at noon 

 plunge their enervated limbs in the mineral waters of 

 Bagneres ; and return at night, by way of Bordeaux, 

 to the ball or the opera ! Do you doubt this ? I shall 

 say that my itinerary only supposes a rate of twenty-six 

 leagues per hour ; that several trials of steam carriages 

 have realized a velocity of fifteen leagues ; that Mr. Ste- 

 phenson, in short, the celebrated engineer of Newcastle, 

 offers to construct steam-engines two and a half times 

 more rapid : engines that will accomplish forty leagues 

 per hour ! 



PRESS FOR COPYING LETTERS. HEATING BY STEAM. 



COMPOSITION OF WATER. BLEACHING BY THE AID 



OF CHLORINE. ESSAY ON THE PHYSIOLOGICAL EF- 

 FECTS THAT MAY RESULT FROM BREATHING VARI- 

 OUS GASES. 



When Watt went to reside at Soho, Birmingham 

 counted Priestley among the inhabitants of its vicinity, — 

 Priestley, and his name alone says all ; Darwin the au- 



